Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: Cat on top of a car inside Midway's Turbo Tim's.

When I posted this picture on Facebook, I noted "Took my car to Turbo Tim's. They got their best guy on it."

I really want to love Turbo Tim's. They are queer friendly and literally within a block and a half of my house. Dropping a car off with them is easy, peasey lemon squeezy. 

But I am deeply concerned that when I go an pick up my car today they will not have fixed the problem because the problem is not routine. It's actually REALLY weird. It's a mystery. Something where you have to have time and patience and a lot of expertise to figure out. I have some kind of parasitic draw sucking the juice from my battery on TOP of the fact that sometimes the wire just jiggles loose. I am very certain that  the loose wire is an AND problem, not the ONLY problem.  

But, inevitably (because this is the second time I've asked Tim's to look at this), they will come back with a simple diagnosis that the wiring is loose and they have tightened it and done and dusted. I saw that come through last night on my estimate, felt depressed, agreed to let them do a couple of other cheap things on their routine list of things they look at on your car and resolved that I was probably going to have to drive out to an auto place in Roseville that I used to swear by that I am 85% certain is run by Trump voting Republicans.  But Tor is the kind of mechanic who can actually trace a problem like this because he is that kind of motorhead Republican who actually kind of believes his manliness is attached to his ability to perform car miracles.  Which WORKS IN MY FAVOR in this instance...

...and I hate that.

I hated it so much that I decided to try to be proactive.

I called Turbo Tim's just now and said, "Look, I am really afraid that when I pick up my car, the problem will not be solved AGAIN." I told the person I talked to just now that I have actually brought the car in to them for this VERY SPECIFIC problem before, that they all did the exact same things that I can see on the list that they text me, and the problem not only continued, but has deterioriated. I do not like to have to pay for labor (although I said I would because I sincerely value labor, even unproductive labor,) when the problem isn't going to be fixed.  And I will be forced to take my car elsewhere if they simply don't have the expertise to fix this or are unwilling or otherwise unable to do it. I am a used car driver. Used cars have weird, dumb, mysterious problems. If Turbo Tim's only solves the easy to fix, routine problems that new cars have, then why are they in Midway??? (See: previous description of my neighborhood as a possum.) Or for that matter Northeast??

The person on the other end at first wanted to reassure me that this is how you test for the things and my car passed the test. I said, somewhat grumpily, "I guess that's why it's a mystery."  I appreciated that they used a voltmeter on my car, but my brother-in-law also owns one. Lots of people have voltmeters. I reminded them that this was their "solution" last time and the problem persisted. The person said, "Oh, you brought this in before?" I said, "Yes, and the problem wasn't fixed then either. This is why I am concerned. You have done the tests before and tightened the wire before. That is simply NOT the problem or it would have been fixed the last time." 

They have now promised to get an extra pair of eyes on the issue. Who knows what this means, but it is, at least, a token effort. 

I will probably still have to budget time (not to mention MONEY) to take my car to a different auto place. 

Still, last time I just sucked up. This time, at least, I am doing what I can.

Image: Willow claiming the Lisa's Star Trek quilt.

Hope you're not allergic to cats, lcohen!  Willow has claimed your quilt.  Also, even though Willow is by no means a smol cat, you can see that it's really not much more than a lap quilt. It does, at least, have a nice fleece backing and so it's extra warm and snuggly.

Anyway, hello, all. I am writing to you in the throes of Thanksgiving prep. The first of our guests are arriving within an hour or two. Since Mason came home yesterday we have been prepping like crazy. Yesterday was the rolling and grilling of the lefse. (No, we are not Norwegian, but we live in Minnesota. Lefse has ended up as part of our holiday staples via osmosis.)  We initially bought a lefse grill with the intention of making crepes on it, but then we were like... WAIT, this also makes lefse, so why not?? For you lefse experts out there, no we don't make it from scratch. We use Aunt Lena's mix. It has fake mashed potatoes. Sneer all you want, the lefse is still hand rolled and comes off fresh from the grill I'm sure yours is better, but we have only so many spoons during the holidays.

Mason is our expert with the lefse stick. So, it was fun to all be in the kitchen yesterday.

Today, Shawn made two pumpkin pies and got the cranberry sauce made. We used to be canned jellied cranberry aficionados, but then Shawn inherited a recipe that involves alcohol and its become a family (and made family) favorite. We have also been making nibbles for around the house for months--cookies of all sorts and almond bark dipped pretzels. 

We do all the cooking for our made family/friends, so Thanksgiving has long been a favorite holiday of ours. 

I'm going to go try to sneak in a nap before people show up, however. Wish me luck!

 
Image: Willow is certain you're up to no good.

I don't have a whole lot to report today, but I wanted to share a picture of my cat, so there you have it. 

Last night we had a couple of friends over for tea and dessert. We'd initially planned to make them dinner as well, but Shawn really wanted to cancel because she's been suffering through three weeks of a migraine/migraine rebound headaches, and, of course, we're starting to get down to the wire for planning for our trip out east to pick Mason up from college. But, when I texted my friend to see if we could beg out, he dropped an irresistible bit of information: "We have chocolate and peanut butter pie."

I mean. 

What else could I do? I quickly checked in with Shawn to see if we could compromise. She said she thought she'd be up for something chill, like just dessert, and so plans were shifted. It worked out really well. They came with a giant cooler (the pie had come from Costco and so was oversized in general, but they also didn't want to presume we had room in our fridge) and a basket of fabric for Shawn's rugs. Shawn is now planning a denim rug based off some really wonderfully colored castoff jeans we're now in possession of.

All and all a lovely Monday evening. 

 As some of you may remember, I started a comic called Void Cat when Shawn and I were taking a doodling course Domestica. Shawn bailed out on the class and so I quit with her, but I am thinking about returning to it, because why not? We paid for the whole thing. One of us should see it through. 

At any rate, I dug up this pre-printed comic book I bought. (Like THIS ONE, but not exactly.) And just jumped into to see what I could come up with. Here's some of what I ended up with.


Image: Title page of a chapter entitled "The Interloper."


Image: Full panel spread of the introduction of rhubarb


Image: Close-up image of a panel with a cat howling, "Ahhhhhhhhh"


Image: Possibly the best picture ever drawn of Rhubarb.

 We are packing up the dishes still from the pantry reorg, and this happened:


1. Buttercup discovers he fits!


2. Rhubarb wants in!


3. Now Rhubarb has a box.

Poor Buttercup. But, his heart is too kind to deny the women he loves.

 Saint Paul only just now called a snow emergency, which means they won't even start plowing side streets until 9 pm. I just shoveled an additional 7 inches of snow from my sidewalk. Shawn and I estimate that about ten or eleven inches. (25.4 cm or 30 cm) fell in the last day.


Image: the snow covered tree in front of our house. (The little blue sign is our "We protect the Mississippi," thing which really just means that Mason adopted a storm drain when he needed a volunteer project a few years ago in order to get into the honors program in high school. I think his favorite part of that program was getting to name the drain. These are in Rochester, but explain what I mean: https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local/funny-storm-drain-names-grate)

So, yeah, it snowed? 

I have not tried to move the car, nor do I intend to. Since St. Paul won't even be dusting off the plows until after 9 pm today, I am parked on the "night plow" side of the street and that's where I plan to stay. Technically, D&D is tonight, but I am hopeful that either we will ALL move to Discord or they can let me "phone it in," as it were.

All this snow started falling yesterday. Shawn was supposed to go into work for her performance review, but that meeting got shifted to virtual so she bailed at around 11 am.  She worked from home all day yesterday, but Mason and I (neither of us who normally have work do to right now) treated it as a snow day and spent the day watching TV (he is re-watching and I'm watching for the first time FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I'd seen FullMetal Alchemist a long time ago, but, even though everyone TOLD me how much better "Brotherhood" is, I never got around to watching it. GUYS, IT'S A WHOLE LOT BETTER.)  I tried to do some quilting, but was stymied by the angry peanut.


Image: Rhubarb (who is actually very sweet these days) loafing in the middle of the quilting hoop.

I should say that even though Willow and Rhubarb still stalk each other around the house, we have mostly settled into a détente. Rhubarb no longer holds any ill-will towards the people. I can't remember the last time she swiped at us with claws out. It's all been play bats. Willow would still like it very much if this interloper would move along, but she's settled back into snoozing under the covers by my legs at night, and otherwise TOLERATING this other cat. Buttercup is still baffled why his two favorite black-haired ladies don't love each other as much as he loves them.

I hope you are all being safe out there, if you are also experiencing snow (and even if you're not.)

When we asked the vet for advice for integrating our cats, we were given a flyer that was written by a behaviorist who had pretty good advice. Some stuff we knew and already were doing and a few other little tricks that might help. However, the funniest part was the suggestion that any time there was a neutral or good interaction between Willow and Rhubarb (formerly known as Clover/Six) we were supposed to give them a treat (make sense) and burble, "Happy Cats!"

So, of course, immediately, Shawn and I started with the somewhat-ironic "Happy Cats!" declaration. 

Mostly, we are being patient. We've had some actual happy cat moments or at least, "I didn't realize you were in my territory because I was sleeping" moments, and continued snapping and hissing. But, the flyer was actually reassuring that integration really can take a long time and that you basically have to go at the pace of the cat who is the most traumatized.

Sometimes that's little loaf:


Image: Rhubarb (a black cat) in a box, being a little loaf.

Sometimes that's big loaf:


Image: Willow (a black cat) in a box, being a big loaf.

This has become our lives. There's been a lot of "Ope! Time for a timeout!" and "Oh, look at you not snarling! Happy Cats!!" around our place, and probably it will continue like this for some time. We want a household where everyone is at least decently tolerating of each other and, as Shawn and I keep reminding ourselves, there's no need to rush since... well, this is basically a lifelong project. There's no deadline. We're in no hurry.

In other news, I adapted a recipe from the Overwatch cookbook to make "bear scat" cookies for my D&D group tonight. For those not reading the D&D/Elf icon posts, basically last adventure we fought a mama bear, so this is just a silly reference to that. There is not bear poop in this recipe, only chocolate, peanut butter, honey, and rice crispies.


Image: round balls of chocolate, peanut butter, rice crispies, and honey.

Happy CATS!!

 
Image: snoozing kitty burrito wrapped up in a green blanket.

I was telling my friend naomikritzer over email today that it's sort of fascinating, the more cats you get to know, how much they differ in all sorts of personality traits, including things that seem very human, like tolerance for pain. Willow, when she had her surgery (and even Ms. Ball, who was also, like Clover, "in a family way" before her spay) all bounced back really quickly. Like, Willow actually pulled some stitches because she really just wanted to zoom around and roughhouse with Buttercup. If Clover wasn't clearly the baby of the family, I'd imagine her saying, "Shhh, just let grandma sleep. Surgery is hard. I am RECOVERING," every time we come into the room to see how she's doing.

She has also convinced me with her sad blinking eyes that I need to bring her breakfast in bed. Mind you, she's been having zero trouble getting up and bouncing around, she just doesn't WANT to. She wants to cuddle into a little ball and sleep a lot. To be fair, that might be the drugs? The vet tech said that they might act as sedatives since she's SO SMALL. (In fact, yesterday, I only gave her half doses, thinking that she was feeling sick and loopy the way she was complaining that first night.) Today, I wasn't able to stop the plunger halfway, so she might be zonked because of the drugs. Still, it seems to fit her personality as we are seeing it develop.

She has earned the nicknames Little Miss Crankypants and Angry Peanut. 

But she really is quite sweet. 

As for the rest of the household, Buttercup spent the first night BESIDE HIMSELF with worry because he could hear her distress and could not come into the room to offer comfort. Willow, meanwhile, has mostly changed her vocalizations near the door. She meows like she's talking to whomever is in the room, rather than growling and hissing possessively. We are not yet trying to do any kind of reintroduction yet, however, since it will still be several days before Clover is even close to considered recovered from the surgery. 

Willow seems generally more relaxed. She still paws at the door, but she no longer seems as unshakably laser focused as she had been. She goes through a lot longer periods of forgetting that other cat is even here.

A good sign?  

We're hopeful.

In other news, I am forced to skip my D&D group tonight in favor of my once  a month writers' group, Pendragons. We have a new member joining tonight so I should probably spend some time today finishing up my "homework" so I don't seem like a doofus in front of her. 



Image: Clover curled up on her favorite green comforter like a big goofy ball. Her little shaved belly is visible.

 You know the stereotype of the wife who is constantly fretting and fussing over renovations? Right now, that's BOTH Shawn and I when it comes to what we want to do to update our kitchen. We thought we had the colors picked out. We'd been smart, or so we thought, and bought samples and painted them in swatches all over and thought and thought and thought about how the colors looked. Thinking we'd decided, I spent half of the day yesterday painting the wainscoting in our kitchen.



Image: Wainscoting which might be...  blood red...????

This picture is not the greatest, but you can see a bit of our flooring. The floor is 1950s linoleum and is largely red. HOWEVER, neither Shawn nor I (nor Mason via WhatApp) think this color is quite right. I feel like, if we were to keep it, when I walk in the kitchen I might end up singing "Red! The Blood of Angry Men...!" every time and I don't even LIKE musicals.

So, we are back to square one. We entertained an olive green at one point because the cabinets are going to be a very retro jadeite color, but the sample of it just looked... odd. We kind of want the wainscoting to look like wood? (It had been Crayola yellow, which we chose, and actually looked quite nice, since we had gone bold and painted our cabinets black.) So, this is a big change for us. Currently, Shawn is sitting next to me, using the Benjamin Moore app to select browns. 

We may be at this for awhile.

In the meantime, we do have the colors for the cabinets and walls chosen, so I will just get started on those as we continue to contemplate this.

In cat news, all three are sharing the upstairs at the moment. We had some growl, but we discovered Willow slinking away after the noise and so we SUSPECT that Clover asserted herself a bit and they are currently at a ceasefire. It would be NICE if we could let them all intermingle when we head out to our friends' cabin this weekend, but I'm not sure that's quite attainable yet. Besides, right away when we come back, Ms. Clover will be having her big surgery, so she will be isolated a bit while she recovers. So, I guess that's all okay. No need to rush things.

 
Image: Willow and Clover eyeing each other on the bed. Clover is hiding behind a green comforter, her ears forward with wary worry; Willow has murder glinting in her yellow-green eyes. Blade of the Immortal lies open between them.

We are committed to a slow introduction.

The friends who were possibly interested in Clover came by on Sunday, had a short, if somewhat unfruitful introduction (more on that in a bit) and still are, but, for reasons, can't take her in for another week, regardless. Meanwhile, we have been having more and more moments like the one above where the two ladies warily regard each other in close proximity with only a small amount of growling and hissing. Our friends are very patient and kind and are willing to remain as back-up in case we simply can't introduce these two no matter what. In the meantime, we have scheduled a spay for Clover on Monday next, with the intention that we keep her. 

So, our friends came by on Sunday around 1 pm. They got a little lost because St. Paul repels anyone from Minneapolis. It's just the nature of the rivalry between the two cities, I firmly believe. (I used to be able to navigate Minneapolis no problem, but after decades of being a St. Paulie, Minneapolis now sees me coming and jumbles up the streets.) We had shut Willow up into the TV room in preparation of the visit. Likewise, we'd let Clover have the run of the house hoping that she'd make her way downstairs. She didn't. In fact, when I picked her up from the bedroom windowsill to show her off to our friends she grumbled and hissed in my arms.

I'm beginning to believe she has decided we are her people and is having none of this being shown off to other people.

Because, wouldn't you know it, the first time our friend very carefully reached for her there were growls and snaps... and then she literally turned tail and ran upstairs to hide under the bed. Said friend later went upstairs with Shawn and had, from all accounts, a much better interaction, but Clover remains very... I swear to all the gods, intentionally unlikable when in the company of other people, particularly other people whom have expressed interested in taking her away from us.

Despite all this, our friends are very willing to remain on stand-by. So, they are the good people we always knew they were.

In the meantime, a fascinating new cat dynamic has emerged in our household.


Image: Like a hidden object game, find all three cats in this messy living room. Hint: big orange tail on the floor, two voids on either chairs.

When Clover is on walkabout at the same time Willow is out, there have been a couple of times when Willow seems surprised to remember that there is an interloper in her household and she will actually make sudden aggressive moves towards Clover. Both times that this happened, I was moving to interfere when.... Buttercup got there first. The first time, Willow had been on the porch and suddenly spotted the smallest little girl out of the corner of her eye and freaked out. She made a mad dash at her. I was standing up to grab her when Buttercup flashed in-between the two ladies and physically blocked Willow's attack, allowing Clover to escape upstairs. He then bullied Willow back a bit before running upstairs to check in on Clover.

I have long joked that Buttercup was a Golden Retriever in a past life, but this is the single most "dog" like behavior I have ever seen him do.

Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he ended up doing it again when Willow attempted to corner Clover under the dining room set. 

For the record, I am not afraid that Buttercup will hurt Willow. He is similarly fiercely protective of her to the point that, if I am giving medicine to Willow and she squawks at all, he will come up and give me a fierce stare like, "You'd better not hurt her." If any of you remember the story of when Willow swallowed a needle, you also will remember that he was the one who literally brought me to her, Lassie-like, when she was hiding in the basement and alerted us to the problem. 

So, I don't think he has simply shifted his affection. From what I saw (and granted it was only twice) he will made a jump at Willow, but only to get her to back off. They did not fight at all. Fingers crossed their relationship stays this way. I'm not depending on it, but I do think it's kind of amazing that Buttercup is acting protective like this to the littlest one. 

We are, of course, separating them immediately when this happens. We kept them apart for several hours, and we're still making Clover sleep in a shut room. We are trying to be slow and careful with our introductions so that we can have as few of these incidents as possible. Hopefully, Willow will get used to her. I suspect that even if she remains wary the rest of this week, that it all might change once Clover is spayed. 

Fingers crossed at any rate.